


Phoenix

by shittykawagirl97



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Marriage, Ohana, Original Character(s), Other, Pre-Slash, Secret Relationship, Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:33:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29047719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shittykawagirl97/pseuds/shittykawagirl97
Summary: Doctor Alyssa Fanti found soothing the bickering of her two most known patients.
Relationships: Chin Ho Kelly/Malia Waincroft, Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Kudos: 30





	1. Of grannies and bickering

**Author's Note:**

> My best friend told me that I should have put all my emotions and experiences in one of my stories.  
> And so I did.  
> This is to M.P. that accepted me as her sister many years ago and never stop believing in me.
> 
> English is not my native language, any correction is appreciated :)
> 
> Chapter set before 2.05

Doctor Alyssa Fanti was intrigued.

Not that the sensation was unknown to her.

On the contrary, it was that same inquisitiveness that made her a promising medical student and a terrific traumatologist. She was maniacally interested in something at least eighty per cent of her workdays.

Usually, she found her nose buried deep in some promising research about new strategies for broken bones healing (during down workdays) or she stubbornly became a pain in her colleagues' asses because "I _need_ to know what is wrong with my patient, Sam! I don't _care_ if you have to break every single street law to be here in fifteen minutes, I need the MRI scan of my patient's broken hand!" (during normal workdays).

However, at that moment, she was not intrigued by either. She was examining a relationship, an amusing and loud and full of rant relationship.

She was called down to ER an hour and a half before due to an idiotic seventeen years old boy that had decided to try diving into his friend's pool from a roof. He miscalculated the force of the leap and hit the concrete before slipping in the water.

He wrecked his right leg but didn't do it so disastrously to have emergency surgeries: Alyssa had had only to pop his bones back in the right place and told the nurses to put the leg into a cast.

She was on the way back to her office when she heard the bitching: it was loud, full of worries, and difficult to miss. She found herself following it without thinking and stopped only at the sight of the blond ranting Detective. His moronic adrenaline junkie partner was sitting on one of the beds, the nurse that was treating his wounded arm was having a difficult time trying not to laugh.

« _This_ is what I was talking about this morning! _You_ jumping in action _before_ someone has the physical time to cover you!» Detective Williams was roaring at this point more than talking. A lot of ER nurses had a smile on their faces as their patients were starting at the two cops, worried about a possible fistfight.

Alyssa just leaned against a wall where she was out of everyone's way to better witness the extravaganza.

She resented a lot of things since she was transferred to The Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, but after meeting these two fine gentlemen she was starting to enjoy herself a little bit. Did she feel evil about drawing pleasure from Five-0's leaders suffering? Yeah, absolutely. But she couldn't stop, they were so protective of each other and always so worried that they could have been able to light a fire with all that energy. Undoubtedly, they were able to warm her heart and delight her days.

«It's just a scratch, Danny», the brunette retorted, and boy if that was the wrong thing to do!

Sometimes Alyssa honestly thought that Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett just loved seeing his partner's blood pressure skyrocket and hearing the man ranting his lungs out.

« _Just_ a scratch? Seriously, _Steven_? Did you want to go _there_ just after this gentle and beautiful nurse gave you ten stitches in front of _me_?»

«They were four, _Daniel_ , I thought that you were able to at least count to ten».

«If you don't stop moving your fucking lips right this very instant, they will be ten because, _I swear to God_ , I will shoot you, the paperwork be damned!»

Alyssa knew she had an enormous smirk on her face but didn't care. The way the two of them always bickered, the way Detective Williams's hands and arms waved around, and the way they knew that the other didn't mean any mockery, reminded her of her two late Italian grannies and how they bickered about everything and anything but still treasured each other.

She would always remember how her Nonna Anna closed herself off after Nonna Maria passed away, never ranting again to anyone; not even her husband's death had had such an impact.

«She _was_ my soulmate», Nonna Anna had told her one night, a few months after the funeral. «Not in a romantic way but a rest-of-our-lives kind of way. We were each other rock and I would have died for her. She would have too, I am sure. The ranting was just for sport, our sport, our way to say: "I love you but you are an idiot, and I have to tell you!" ».

Nonna Anna died six months after Nonna Maria. The doctor said she had died of old age, Alyssa knew better: she had died of loneliness. She missed Nonna Maria just too much.

Alyssa watched through her watering eyes the two bickering men for another moment before returning to her work.

They were teasing each other.

Everything was good.


	2. Viking warrior mums squad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa has to work overtime because of Steve and Danny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is set between 2.05 and 2.10

The thing was that although Alyssa loved having Detective Williams and Lieutenant Commander McGarrett as her patients - and being surrender by their bickering - she saw them _too much_ for her enjoyment.

She _knew_ their medical records by _heart_ , and that was because _she_ had personally penned half of them. Sometimes they returned to her care _before_ they had even completed their last medical treatments.

She had to pinch her nose too many times to not punch them straight in their nose and add more work. Her hot-headedness didn't improve her irritation but she was trying not to punch any more people during her shift, reminding herself that she _was_ sent to Honolulu from Boston because she _did hit_ her superior. 

Yes, he had been a misogynistic bastard that constantly discriminated against every female employee but she was the one that got punished for that incident. He became the traumatological ward's head surgeon in one of the finest Boston hospitals while she was shipped away to Hawaii.

She didn't even like the hot weather or the sea!

She shook her head, hating her brain for reminding her of such dreadful times. She had paperwork to do and, if she was quick enough, she could slip out of the building without someone blocking her escape and asking her to do overtime.

Yeah, she could that.

Or not.

The moment her fingers started typing again, with such confidence that her fingertips ached, her door swung open and Doctor Malia Waincroft waltzed in with a hurry.

«You _have_ to go down to ER».

Alyssa searched Malia's face, trying to find any crack she could use to her advantage. 

She knew who Malia's boyfriend was and if she was there in person it meant that someone on the Five-0 team was injured just not work-related; most possibly Williams or McGarrett seeing that they were her patients. The woman was not asking her to do overtime but to attend to the injured man as a favor - she truly praised not _both;_ because she had learned that if the two men were badly injured _simultaneously_ , it meant that a dangerous psychopath was freely running around Oahu.

«The first time I will meet Williams and McGarrett outside of the hospital walls, _I swear_ , I will punch them until they had learned how to properly take care of themselves», she spitted, too much tired to contain herself. «I am starting to feel guilty at how much they are paying me!»

Malia's face relaxed at Alyssa's words and a smile popped out, now she resembled the first friend Alyssa made on the island.

«You haven't to tell me that, I live not knowing if a want to punch or kiss Chin most of the time».

«Even if your brain decides that it's time to punch Chin, you would go for the kiss: you love him too damn much», Alyssa said to her friend before standing up and making her way toward the door. «So, who is today?»

Malia was right behind her, strolling along toward the elevator.

«Danny _and_ Steve».

Alyssa frowned, her gut twisting with concern. «Both? What did the hell happen? There was no major incident on the news!»

«Well, they weren't working and they should have known better - being in their thirties and all», Malia sighed, ashamed of Chin's bosses' behavior. The two women stopped in front of the elevator.

Alyssa turned to her, wanting an actual explanation.

«They started a fistfight during Grace's - Danny's daughter - softball match».

The two women were silent for a long moment before the elevator dinged, Alyssa entered while Malia stayed where she was.

«If you hear someone calling HPD from the ER», Alyssa said holding the doors, «it will be for me, probably to be arrested for assaulting a police officer and a Navy official».

Malia laughed.

«Don't worry I will have your bail paid in less than an hour».

The first thing Alyssa heard, after arriving in ER, was Williams ranting.

She chuckled, categorizing these as "irritate ranting". She tried to not think that she saw the two men so much that she had started indexing the bickering, so, she concentrated on the male nurse that was moving towards her.

Ralph gave her two medical records and asked her to release the couple the fastest she could: he didn't want to see two grown-ass men fucking each other on an ER bed. She laughed and thanked him.

Williams and McGarrett were sitting together on a bed near the end of the area, their hips and shoulders pressed together; the smallest had a black eye while the tallest had a busted lip and an awful bruising on his jaw. Both had split knuckles and their clothes were ruined.

Two fistfighters at their best.

«Good evening gentlemen», she interrupted Williams ranting about what his ex-wife was going to pull when she heard about all this and the two looked at her, the blood flooding a little out of their faces. Maybe she was displaying her irritation for being urged into overtime, maybe not. «How're the other men?»

The slap of her newly wear plastic gloves on her wrists awaked the two officers.

«Women, doc», Williams answered with a splash of pink on his cheekbones. «And they are completely fine, just some scratches. They kicked our sorry asses mercilessly, though».

Alyssa took McGarrett's chin in her hands and pointed it toward the blond to better see the yellow and black bruise. He hissed at her touch but the jaw bone didn't feel damaged.

«They had to be strong if they made you come all the way to the hospital». She said remembering that one of the men was a policeman and the other was an ex-Navy SEAL.

«They all had mean hooks and two of them were MMA athletes...». McGarrett started while she studied his busted lip.

«Aaand Malia kidnapped us here». Williams concluded.

Alyssa wanted to laugh because she knew how Malia was but her brain had just decided to conjure up old memories again: the way Williams had finished McGarrett's phrase made her reminiscence the few months before two of her best friends got together.

They had been perfect for each other since day one, everyone could have seen it but them.

They studied together, they went around together and they always, always completed each other sentences. It took them almost twelve months but in the end, they started dating. Their wedding occurred two months after she landed in Honolulu and she wasn't able to fly back home for it.

She blamed herself and her temper and swear to never punch another human being.

Her now married friends, though, never blamed her. They had even decided to spend their honeymoon in Oahu so they could see her, she cried like a baby when she had seen them at the hospital reception.

«Are you okay?» Asked the male brunette in front of her, bringing her back in the present.

Alyssa stopped her brain from digging up other memories and imposed herself to breathe steadily. She had to clear her throat and shut her eyes to not cry.

«Isn't that my line, Commander?» She asked back, a smirk plastered on her face.

Williams waved a hand.

«Let it go», the blond told her. «He _has_ a superhero complex. Even when is bleeding out he won't say anything and try to distract you by asking how are you». 

His partner whined. « _Danno_!»

«Shush», ordered Williams and Alyssa laughed. Perhaps punching a superior wasn't the smartest thing she had ever done, and perhaps she now lived in a city that was thousands of miles away from her friends and her family but strangely enough, she didn't feel all that lonely anymore.

«So», she exclaimed, her mind back to work, «Detective, would you enlight me on the incident?»

«Oh no, no, no. Call me Danny». He offered her. «We see each other too much these days to not drop down to first names: I'm Danny and he's Steve».

Alyssa felt herself smiling her heart suddenly a little lighter. «If so, you can call me Alyssa. Back on track, why did you declare war on a Viking warrior mums squad?»

Steve had his mouth open to answer but his blond partner was quicker.

«If I have to be truthful», Danny began, «it all started with this tall, brainless, Neanderthal that decided he knew softball's foul _better_ than the referee...»


	3. Midnight demons talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After North Korea, everyone has their demons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set just after 2.10

Finding herself included in the Five-0 task force's Ohana, was not something that Alyssa expected.

Yes, Danny and Steve had told her to call them by their birth names, and yes, Chin, Kono, and Lori _always_ called her - how they got her number she didn't want to know - to inform her if one of their bosses was arriving into ER.

She even ranted along with Danny on one occasion because Steve was being _too_ stubborn.

But when Malia had invited her over to dinner at Steve's house - "He asked me to invite you, I swear!" - she had been undoubtedly surprised. The dinner turned out to be lovely and joyful: she had met Kono, Chin, and Lori in real life for the first time and Grace had thanked her for helping his Danno when he was hurt; there had been good food, beer, and Kono and Grace hijacked the speaker, in five minutes everyone was dancing.

Danny had been the first to ask her for a dance - he wasn't the best dancer but he tried - then Alyssa danced with Kono, Lori, Steve, Malia, Grace, and even Chin. When she had been able to sit down again her head was spinning but not so much to not catch Danny and Steve exchanging a knowing smile and a gaze full of tenderness above two bottles of beers.

If she would have not been so drunk, she surely would have been fascinated.

She had felt guilty, though, like she had betrayed her old friend in Boston.

She called them the night after the dinner and despite her guilty feeling, everyone turned out to be happy to hear about her new friends: they had been all concerned that she wouldn't be able to open up to anyone.

And so the days had passed. 

Then it happened.

She did not know why or how - she _did not_ know how to shoot or how a rescue mission worked - but she found herself sitting on a plane to South Korea to save Steve's life.

She was scared shitless but Danny being almost silent scared her even more. Her blond friend, always vocal and loud, quieted in a silent predator; she hadn't been scared of him but of what he was willing to do to save Steve.

Alyssa had waited with Kono at the "base" and almost ate her nails out. The moment the two of them were told that Steve _had_ been rescued, her lungs started to absorb oxygen again. She had almost fainted and Kono promised to never tell anyone.

When Steve arrived at the base, her work mind had been back in place and she patched him up the best she could. 

That night, when Alyssa had seen Danny walking into Steve's room but hadn't heard any of the soothing rantings that always followed the two men, she almost had a panic attack; it was Kono and Lori that had brought her back, telling her that Steve and Danny were going to be fine.

One day and a half later they were back in Honolulu and Steve was admitted to The Queen's Medical Center.

A knock on the door brought her back from the memory of the last few days.

«Come in». She called out, trying not to sound as stressed as she felt. Chin appeared in her office with a smile.

«Hey».

«Hey yourself. What are you doing here? Something wrong?» She asked, maybe a little too much worried.

Alyssa never thought that _not_ having Steve running around the ER for one motive or another would have given her so much anxiety.

«You can stay calm», he half laughed, «Without Steve blowing up half of the city, our work is relatively calm. I am just here to ask for a favor». He said before leaning on one of the chairs.

«A favor?» She asked, sighing with relief in her mind.

«Yeah», he answered. «Danny has Grace tonight, it was a last-minute thing and he doesn't want Grace to spend the night in Steve's hospital room while Kono, Lori, and I have previous engagements we can't postpone. A few minutes ago, I was having lunch with Malia and she mentioned that you _didn't_ have a night shift today».

«You want me to _babysit_ your boss?» She asked, just to make sure. Chin smirked amused.

«Just try not to use the word “babysit” ».

Alyssa laughed out loud.

«I will try but I guarantee nothing», she smiled at his new friend, «but yes, I have no problem in keeping Steve company tonight».

Alyssa, that afternoon, didn't think that keeping Steve company would have been so exhausting. She had joked with all the “babysit” thing but now she understood how much she had been right.

Steve tried to leave the hospital at least five times. The first being at her arrival: she had opened the door to find Steve standing up, his beloved cargo pants in one hand.

She had shouted at him and put him back to bed.

«I never thought that a person with such a temperament could end up being a doctor». His honesty had made her smile.

The other four attempts were a little bit calmer. When the clock hit eleven pm - and ten calls later from Danny - Steve finally had stopped fighting and fell asleep.

Alyssa was so tired that she hadn't noticed she had subsided into unconsciousness too.

She hadn't dreamt. If she had, she didn't remember any of it.

She just knew that a moment she was asleep and the next wide awake. She had balled up on the chair she was sitting on and her back was hurting like the bitch it was, the medical room was dark, and not a sound was to be heard from the corridor.

A nurse probably had passed by because she now had a blanket on her.

It took her a few seconds to understand what woke her up: it was faint, almost nonexistent, but she heard the whimpering again. An agonizing whimper came from the bed near her.

She knew that desperate cry of pain, she heard it before and in the worst night, it came back to haunt her into insomnia. The first time she had heard it, she fled frightened; she had been feeling regretful about it ever since.

But now, almost twenty-one years later, she wasn't a scared child; she was a doctor and her friend needed her.

She was still struggling with herself - her flee-or-die instinct was screaming mercilessly to flee again from that hurtful sound - when Steve's voice raised above whispers.

«No!» He painfully exclaimed, it wasn't a shout but a beg. «Please kill me, but not him!»

Alyssa felt her heart clench and she was by Steve's side instantaneously.

«Steve». She called without touching him. Was this PTSD kicking in or just a terrible nightmare? She didn't know and she didn't want to find out that night, because she knew: if she woke him up and he reacted instinctively, he would never be able to forgive himself for hurting her.

«No!» He exclaimed again distressed, his eyes still close. «Danno, no! Not Danny, not him, please».

Alyssa never heard Steve begged, not even as a joke, and she now found that it was the worst noise possible. It was so wrong in his mouth that she almost started to cry-panic, she didn't know what he was dreaming but she was praying for it to stop.

Steve didn't deserve all that misery.

« _Steve_!» She called out again, this time in a choked shout.

Green eyes finally opened. Steve was looking around disorientated, his eyes weren't in focus; obviously, he was still more in his nightmare than in reality.

«Steve». She called again and, finally, his eyes stopped on her and seemed to focus a little.

«Lyss?» He asked unsurely.

«Yes, Steve. We are at Queen's Medical Center». She explained trying to bring him back.

«Not North Korea». He said faintly and she shook her head.

«No, Steve, you're home».

«Danno saved me, he wasn't tortured with me». 

«Yes, Steve, it was only a nightmare».

Steve sobbed ungracefully and shoved his palms into his eyes. Alyssa didn't hesitate this time, she grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it hard.

They stayed just like that until the brunette's sobs subsided, leaving a peaceful silence in the room. 

Alyssa, for the first time in twenty years, felt a little bit of her guiltiness leave her body. She didn't panic, she didn't run away, she stayed put and helped the crazy ex-Navy SEAL; she did what she couldn't have done all those years back.

«Mahalo», she said before she could stop her mouth. Her voice was weak and chocked and her eyes were stinging.

Steve's hands immediately fell from his eyes and he stared at her, uncertain and worried.

«I am not a therapist but I am pretty sure that I should be the one to say that».

Every inch of the tension that had been in the room just minutes before, suddenly, disappeared. Alyssa felt lighter than ever and she even let a few tears escape her eyes.

«Yeah, normally, yeah», she agreed, «but, with my emotional baggage and yours, I don't think we can be classified as “normal” ».

His green eyes searched her face in the moonlight dusk. 

«Why don't you sit down?» He asked softly, his voice full of affection. «We can talk about it. You just saw me crumble, I think the minimum I can do is listening to your demons».

Alyssa froze. She rarely confessed her worst remorse, she remembered to have told it once to her university friends. They were opening up to each other and for the first in her life she felt the urge to say it out loud, she had trembled the whole time she narrated them the day her mother asked her to make her suffering stop and she ran away.

She was twelve at the time, she knew that her mother was suffering from hepatitis C for years, and yet nothing had prepared her for that damn afternoon. The way her mother, her rock, had trembled while whimpering from the pain and cupped her hands, still half asleep, asking her child to kill her, to end all of this; Alyssa, that day, had run away from reality for the first time in her life.

She had never escape something before; not even when she was nine years old and woke up one morning to see EMS exit her house with a body bag, in it his grandad corpse.

But when her mum needed her the most, she flew. The remorse that was born that day never left; her mother's death two years after that, didn't help her at all.

And now, Steve was asking her to be open up about it all.

Alyssa studied his eyes for long stretched seconds, searching for the smallest crack of mistrust but all she could find was apprehension and loyalty, she found Steve.

«I always thought that was Danny the one that talked about demons and feeling», she joked as she dragged the chair nearer the bed, Steve giggled.

«Just... Never mention this night to Danno, ever, he will think I am dying if you did. And I didn't say I will “talk” about anything, just listen».

Alyssa waited a few more seconds.

«Are you positively ready for my life story?»

«Yeah, I think I am».

The next morning, when Danny arrived with coffees and malasadas, he found both of them peacefully asleep: Alyssa's head was dropped on her arms near Steve's thigh, one of his partner's hand on top of the woman's black hair.

He took a photo and sent it to their friends.

Neither Alyssa nor Steve spoke about that night ever again, it was their secret to maintain.

They slipped only once, during all the years of their solid friendship, to Danny; they were too drunk and they just talked like they forgot that the blond man was there. Danny let them talked all night long and the next morning he just hugged them.


	4. Next of Kin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa thinks she can't be surprised anymore but Steve proves her wrong. Danny gets shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set after 2.16 (that in my head is a couple of months before 09/20/2011 – or 20/09/2011 if you are a normal human being like me, because seriously America? Put the month first? Why? Sincerely, a worried Italian)

In the almost year Alyssa lived on the island, she started to feel less and less surprised by things.

After becoming friends with Danny and Steve, she just shrugged her shoulders at whatever happened. A shoutout? Great! Steve demolished a warehouse with a grenade? Danny should have hidden them better.

The epiphany about her new life hit her the day Danny had called her announcing they needed her help to re-establish Five-0: she had said something near like "Yeah, okay, whatever you need" and let Kono into an operating room - to retrieve the blood of a Russian suspect of murder and rape - while visiting Steve. 

She had been a little bit disappointed when Lori had to depart because of the Russian incident but no surprise whatsoever. 

She was thinking of cancelling the term “surprise” from her vocabulary. Danny and Kono joked about it a lot, Chin just told her to be prepared.

Almost a month after Lori's departure, Chin demonstrated to be always right.

Because Alyssa's eyes almost fell off when Steve marched into her office armed to the teeth. 

She had heard the news about a raid not ending well at the docks on the TV and Kono contacted her an hour before to let her know that Danny was hit in the operation, but the surgery had gone well.

She may or may not had bribed a nurse, Michelle, with a dinner to let her read the medical record; her brain couldn't live without knowing that her blond loud-mouthed friend was indeed okay.

However, none of that explained Steve's armed entrance.

His: «I need _you_ to let me see Danny!» was met with hers: «Why the _fuck_ are you in my office with a fucking _gun_ on you?!».

Situated in front of her there was a mother and her fourteen years old daughter, Jenny. She didn't know if the mother was more upset by the man's weapons near her daughter or her colorful vocabulary, the woman's priorities were maybe a little fucked up. 

Either way, Jenny was thrilled by all of it; probably because she recognized Steve as the head of the Hawaiian most known task force.

« _Please_ , Lyss», Steve pressed, with worries and desperation. 

Alyssa had been a second away to kick the man's ass out of the room but the words died in her throat: his eyes were gleaming with tears. The worries, the rage, and the desperation were floating in them furiously; Steve was having an emotional meltdown.

Alyssa knew that spark, that gaze because she had seen it once before.

Almost seventeen years before, during New Year's, her sister's six years long boyfriend had an ulcer. She remembered waking up to her sister on her room threshold telling her that they were going to the ER. When her sister had come back home, a few hours later, her eyes had been of fire with indignation: even if they had been living together for four years, the doctors couldn't tell her how her boyfriend was doing.

And all because they were just living together and she wasn't blood or in-law family. The angry and worried spark in her sister's eyes died only nine months after that when she and her boyfriend finally married.

Steve, now, had the same spark.

 _Oh_.

Alyssa didn't talk: she shot up from her seat, took the brunette's arm, and dragged him out of her office in a flash; Jenny and her mother no more relevant in her mind.

An emotionally wounded Steve was a calamity ready to happen that she couldn't ignore, not even for gloating at her sudden epiphany.

The nurses they met along the way to the elevator stared at them with popping out eyes and hands at ready for calling ER. 

One thing was having Five-0's boss Steve McGarrett running around the city dangerously overwhelmed by his emotions.

Another thing was having Doctor Alyssa Fanti marching around like she was on a mission and failure wasn't an option.

But both things happening _jointly_? That was another thing altogether.

The nurses, that once joked about it happening, found themselves worried that the hospital was about to collapse under those two forces of nature.

«What happened?» Alyssa asked dodging a gurney, her hand still tightly closed around Steve's arm like he wasn't keeping up with her.

«There was a shootout at the docks», he said flatly, like he wasn't drawing in his own emotions. «One of the shooters ran away and I went after him. When I came back with the felony in cuffs, Kono was covered in blood and Danny was being loaded in an ambulance: he was shot in his side, just under the vest. I was right behind the ambulance and I waited for three hours before the surgery was over. They told me he was okay but they won't let me see him».

Alyssa stopped in front of the elevator and called it. Her brain going three hundred miles an hour, too much information floating around and not enough time to lit them in place.

On one thing she was sure, although: she was not only concerned for Danny but Steve too; if she wasn't fast enough to take him to his partner, she was sure he was going to treat somebody with a grenade.

The elevator pinged and they were inside; the door closed and she wanted to scream at the sky. 

How could has she been so blind? She _was_ intrigued by their relationship, she _had_ studied them with determination but it took her an emotionally unstable McGarrett to _finally_ see what was under her nose all along.

She was so, so dumb.

Alyssa pivoted towards the man and pinned him to the back of the elevator with only her strong and irritated gaze; Steve's eyebrows skyrocketed to his hair at how much he was surprised at her friend's reaction and his back touched the metal wall behind him.

He was cornered, not even knowing why, and scared of his predator.

«I tell you one thing, Steve», she began, a finger at his chest and her tone dangerously low, «if anyone ever finds out what I am about to do while helping you, I will lose my license. No punishment: a call and my job is gone, puff.

«Therefore when the times come, DADT finally cancelled from history and civil unions right where they should be in our laws, I want you to pop the question to Danny in the most romantic way humanly possible and I want an engraved invitation. Above all of this, however, I want you to change Danny in your NOK so no one will ever notice that you magically became Danny's».

Steve was speechless as Alyssa was breathless - she never thought that treating someone would have been a cardio workout.

The ex-Navy SEAL's face was an uproar of emotions: fear, surprise, gratitude, devotion, and embarrassment were fighting to have a place on the scene; it looked a lot like a Picasso's masterpiece. 

It took the man half a minute to regain control over his voice.

«If Danny will ever respond positively to my confession, I will oblige to your request in no time», he said trembling and in a whisper. «And, so you know, I am risking my Navy carrier too».

Alyssa inhaled sharply.

_What?!_

The black-haired woman pressed the “STOP” button faster than lightning; the elevator abruptly stopped and they shuffled a little to find their balance. She didn't care about that or about the endless number of alarms she just triggered.

«What the _fuck_ did you just say?»

Steve looked at her disoriented and unsure of what triggered his friend.

«That we are both risking our job...?» 

«Before that, Steven», she said but it was more like a barked order than a clarification. Her eyes were burning on his skin and he didn't like it one bit.

«That I hope Danny feels the same way I do about him».

Alyssa covered her face with her hands.

In her brain, underneath all the agitation, worries, and irritation, she knew where Steve was coming from and she could understand him - her cousin Ethan _was_ in the Air Force and he _was_ bi. 

She still could remember the Christmas' Eve family dinner of twelve years before - the last one with both their grannies - when Ethan's sexuality slipped out of his mouth; too drunk to remember about DADT. 

She recalled that she thought that she had never seen her aunt Sarah - Ethan's mum - whitening so rapidly in twenty-one years of age, just before Hell descended in the house.

There have been shouting, crying, and someone had suggested looking for bugs while Nonna Anna and Nonna Maria were laughing like maniacs at the ordeal. She and her cousin Elli decided, in their alcohol-induced happy state of mind, to come out of the closet as a pansexual and a lesbian respectfully to backing him up.

It had taken almost two hours for their family to calm down.

The morning after, Alyssa had listened to her aunt Sarah scolding Ethan, telling him that he was fortunate that that happened at dinner with his family but he had to be wary of how dangerous DADT was.

So, yeah, Alyssa understood exactly where Steve was coming from but she was too riled up to care.

«Why the hell didn't you confess to Danny, yet?!» She whispered shouted at his friend.

«Lyss... I couldn’t... To him... I...», Steve swallowed shamefully.

«What Steve, what?» She asked again. «You love him and he loves you. The both of you could have worked something out!».

Steve tossed a hand in his short hair, he was distressed and probably was thinking of a way to climb the elevator and escape that conversation; his face a Picasso's masterpiece once again.

«I was waiting for DADT to finally be abolished», he sighed, obviously concluding that he couldn't run away from the situation. «He is too important for me, I didn't want to confess, and then what... Ask him to be my dirty little secret? I _love_ him, Lyss. Hell, I want to go around Oahu and parade him as _mine_ , not stealing kisses from him in the dark and let him feel like a fucking burden».

They looked at each other for long minutes, the silence stretching between his pleading eyes and her distressed gaze. They both knew there wasn't a right way to resolve the problem.

Alyssa sighed and turned around to pressing the elevator into life.

«Just don't fuck this up, Steve», she peeped after a moment. «I love you, I love Danny, and I wish to see you two happy».

«Mahalo», Steve replied in a soft voice. «Not just for cheering for us but for what you're about to do as well. You didn't have to».

The woman snorted at that.

«I didn't have to do this? Steve... You, Danny, Kono, Chin, and Malia - Hell, even Max! - _are_ my Ohana. I _have_ to do this».

«You are part of our Ohana, too, Lyss».

Five minutes after Steve was registered as Danny's NOK and a nurse was apologizing to him for the inconvenience.


	5. I care so I puch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alyssa cries, punches Steve, and sobs all over the boys' shoulders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set before and after 2.20

Alyssa was a worn-out rag. 

Or at least, she felt like one.

The dark circles under her eyes were almost at the same level as the ones she sported throughout college and her brain couldn't think of anything that wasn't the hole Steve's unannounced departure left. The reality that he hadn't even call once since was so frustrating she almost took a plane to nowhere to find him and slit his throat open a couple of times.

One morning she found herself at the airport, looking at the departure board and asking herself where Steve could have gone. She had almost come up with a complete plan for touring every known war zone on the planet in less than two months when Kono appeared.

Turned out Five-0 had to access the airport security camera for a case and Danny was fast to notice her sitting there; he almost had a breakdown and hysterically ordered Kono - her words - to go and get her back into their office.

«You should have seen him, Lyss», Kono had sighed while driving the two of them to the Palace. «Danny's hands were moving around more frantic than ever and he was ranting in a higher pitch. Steve's disappearance is making a number on him. Chin, Max, and I are honestly worried: he had hardly slept since and he is studying Steve's document on Shelburne like a mad man...».

Alyssa felt a ping of hate towards Steve, why the hell he left like _that_ the stupid son of a bitch?

Danny had crushed her in a bear hug the moment she entered the Five-0's HQ; she never thought that a man shouting could have been full of wrath and concerns at the same time.

She sighed, stopping at Steve's front door, the keys Chin had given her in one hand and a pack of six beers in the other.

It felt strange to be at Steve's house when the man himself wasn't there to welcome her with a smile and a hug but Kono asked her to check on Danny that night; obviously, she said yes.

The panic of the smallpox incident was still fresh in everyone's minds and she hadn't had the time to meet with Danny since he returned three days before; she was worried about him and felt the need to talk to him, making sure that he was okay and that Steve didn't fuck up their partnership too remarkably.

Maybe hug the blond once or twice to settle down her brain and convince herself that he wasn't disappearing too.

She bit down her bothers and opened the door with the tinting keys.

Danny was sitting on the couch on her left, papers and maps scattered haphazardly on the coffee table in front of him.

«I know Chin, I should be resting bu—», Danny turned to face her and stopped from shock, he wasn't waiting for her. «You aren't Chin».

«No, no I'm not». Alyssa stated while closing the door behind her. «At least we now know that you didn't become blind, even if you are trying hard with those papers».

The blond was tired, even a blind person could have seen it. His eyes were injected with blood and puffy, the dark circle under them more prominent since the last they met, and his cheekbones were slimmer than ever.

«Oh for fuck sake! _Why_ the fuck aren't you eating?!» She demanded furiously.

Danny probably felt attacked because he became defensive in a matter of seconds: «I _am_ eating, thank you very much. _I_ know how to take care of myself».

His hands waved in the direction of a discarded plate on the little table, half-buried under a map of... Was that Japan? Fuck, she had to rearrange her searching-for-Steve worldwide tour and add the country; possibly after a little research to know where Japanese military bases were.

«I am talking about a proper meal, _Daniel_ », Alyssa didn't budge under the man's pressure. Danny always criticized Steve for minimizing his injuries and his mental health but she had learned quickly that he was the same; becoming even worse when Steve's life was at stake. «When was the last time you eat something that wasn't a P&J sandwich?»

Danny's hard edges crumbled a bit.

«How the hell did you know I had a P&J sandwich?» He asked, utterly stunned.

The woman rotated her eyes to the roof.

«There is a little bit of P&J on the plate with bread's crumbs», she explained, pointing with her free hand to the half-hidden plate; Danny followed the direction with his gaze and mumbled something that sounded a lot like “traitor”. «But that wasn't the main point, you need food, Danny. _Real_ food».

Danny singled and slouched himself back on the couch.

«I just... I am not famished, P&J sandwiches can stay down easily with coffee but the thought of eating something more substantial does not sit well with my stomach».

In reality, Danny's stomach was thundering angrily since two days ago but he wanted to analyze Steve's document – he _needed_ it – and cooking for himself would have meant distracting himself for too long. He was angry with the man. Not just for leaving or leaving with only a letter as a notice, but for what he had written in that damn letter.

_That damn son of a bitch._

Alyssa looked into the man's blue eyes and felt distressed: his friend was in agony. The blue of his eyes was deep and dark and she could see the desperation underneath. Kono was right: Steve's departure was upsetting Danny a lot more than everyone else like there was more to the departure than he let them on.

But what? And even more, _why didn't he tell them_?

«How do grilled cheese toasts and beers sound to you?», she asked. Maybe she couldn't help much in police work but at least she was trying to make sure they were healthy and sleeping – Malia too, great Malia that ranted at any given time about Chin's crumbling sleeping pattern.

Danny closed his eyes, he didn't like her pity one bit and surely was going to be vocal about it. She was a civilian with no ties to Steve if not a friendship but all of them trusted her instantaneously with every secret, even the dangerous one.

_Good, God!_ He literally dragged her to South Korea because they needed a doctor. He didn't know why but Danny knew that she could have handled the stress, something in him was telling him that she would have made it out without a stretch even if things would have gone south.

And when Steve left? He told her everything. Danny opened up to her like she was there all along and had a badge on her hips; he couldn't understand why or how but his guts were openly trusting a civilian with harmful information.

But there, at that moment, watching her dark eyes full of worries, rage, and upsetness... He suddenly understood why she clicked with them so well and so fast. 

Alyssa was like Steve, not the crazy-ass-ninja-SEAL way but the loyal-to-a-fault kind of way. They could leave the world behind if they knew someone they love was in danger, and they would be ready to throw away their life for saving someone. And _their eyes_! Their eyes and the demons underneath! The two of them were so full of unresolved and untreated traumas that Danny was almost afraid of them – but at least he now knew why she and his partner bonded so effortlessly.

And like him – he could feel it – Alyssa was furious at Steve for more than one reason. Both of them were a foot away from imploding.

Maybe it was time to talk.

«Lyss...», he tried to say but the woman mistook his tone because a dangerous flame lighted up in her eyes.

«Lyss _what_ , Danny?», she hissed in a tricky tone. « "Lyss _I don't need food to stay upright_ " or "Lyss _I am fine_ "? Because you know as well as me that those are hyperbolic bullshit! You need food and you need sleep and hopefully, you aren't too much down the way to fall asleep while eating! Santiddio!»

The blond was at loss for words, watching her hands – the one holding the beers too – waving around like she was a member of his family. She had told him that _both_ of her parents were from Italy and that they moved to the States when she was only three months old (making her a whole Italian woman) but it was the first time she felt Italian to him.

Her voice was loud and filling every corner of Steve's house, her Italian inflexion was as clear as the Hawaiian sky, and her whole body was moving around like it was trying to talk too.

Usually, an upset Alyssa was terrifying but an _Italian_ upset Alyssa? That was nightmares material for even the most dangerous criminal of the island.

«And look at what you mi hai fatto fare!», she was still ranting. «Now I am parlando in entrambe le languages! Per la miseria!»

Alyssa was having problems resetting her bilingual brain, filled with so many concerns that she couldn't think with only one language. She hated when that happened because the people around her couldn't understand her anymore and she started to feel so _lonely_ , so out of place that it _was_ scary. 

And Danny's eyes were screaming "WTF?!" and... Oh, shit. _That was a panic attack! Why was she having a panic attack after all those years?!_

Danny, that was still watching her in awe, was quick at recognizing the rapid intakes of oxygen and the whitening of her face – he saw soo many people having a panic attack in his line of work that he could scent one, miles away. In a second he was up, standing in the woman's personal space, hugging her, and whispering soothing words in her ears.

Alyssa clung her free hand in Danny's shirt and let herself breakdown in those strong arms; she cried every single emotion she felt in those last few days on the man's shoulder.

How she was able to not let go of the beers, she didn't know but she was grateful that she didn't have to clean that mess too.

It was disconcerting how a few hours could change your day.

Two hours and a half before she was crying her eyes out and now she was washing the dishes while Danny was drying and putting them away. She had cried for what felt an eternity but were only twenty minutes, soaking the man's shirt without shame. At some point, Danny joined her and cried on her shoulder – being the same height was useful sometimes.

After the breakdown show was over, Danny informed her that he had been trying to tell her that he would have loved grilled cheese but they were out of bread. They decided to take a shower, change in Steve's clothes – and if that was what they both needed for feeling better, they hadn't to tell anyone – and cook some pasta.

Danny couldn't believe that Alyssa's pasta sauce was better than his mother's.

«I _am_ Italian. If I can't even cook pasta al sugo the proper way, my mom would have given me away a long time ago!»

During dinner and the cleaning, they chatted away lightly about everything and anything. They laughed at each other teen stories and Alyssa spoke about her grannies and their bickering sessions, Danny was pretty embarrassed at being compared to an old ranting woman.

«You know that you are a grumpy old lady, right?», she asked him at some point, and he sighed out a tired: “Yes, yes I know”.

And now, filled with food and plates put away, they knew what was going to happen.

«I grab the beers, you can go sit outside», Danny told her with a soft smile, she complained and went straight to the two beach chairs; two minutes later Danny was sitting in the second chair and passing a beer to her.

They remained silent, taking some sips from their beers and listening to the ocean waves crashing against the sand.

«Tenish years ago I had a very good friend, Amy», she broke the ice, knowing that Danny should understand why all of this was breaking down every single mental shield she had. «I... Uh... I was attached to her a lot. She helped me out of a dark period of my college years and... And thinking about it in retrospect I had probably a crush on her».

Danny snorted a little and Alyssa chuckled too.

«Yeah, I know the feeling», he said pointing at her with his bottle. She clinked it before going back to her story.

«We were friends for four years. I texted her every day, lunched with her every other day, and when it was spring break we found the time to meet up and pass some time together... I _was_ happy and even though we had our divergencies, we were always able to talk about it and bring out things from one another...»

Alyssa took a shaking breath in, her eyes were once again tingly with tears and she gulped down a sip of beer. Danny was watching her with intense eyes and a little bit of pain; he wasn't pitying her but feeling her pain as it was his.

«What happened?», he asked carefully. She had talked about her college years a few times with him and once he confessed that he had a minor in economics. They had shared college jokes here and there, but he always felt that there were things she didn't like to remember about those years. 

He was pretty sure he was going to listen to one of those things and he wasn't going to like it one bit.

«That is the fun part», she angrily snapped, her voice was filled with hurt even after all those years. « _I don't know_. Even after ten years and several attempted to bring back our friendship, I don't fucking know what went south and when!»

Alyssa was now shouting but she didn't care. Her heart was sour and her soul still hurting, she could remember those bitter days with such clarity that it was unsettling. She tried to forget so, so many times but she couldn't, not without a fucking explanation.

Danny grabbed her shoulder and squeezed hard. He was there, he was there for her.

«I just know that one day we were joking about anything and everything, and the next one... A-And the next one we weren't talking _at all_. She was avoiding me and my calls and my text. Not only mine but our friends too... God, after a week I recall that I had thought that she was dead and her family didn't know how to contact us! 

«After a month we bumped into her little brother at a bar. We were worried so we asked him, he shrugged saying that he didn't know anything; two days after that one of my friends bumped into him again and he told us that her phone was broken...»

Alyssa dried off a tear with the back of her hand and gulped down the rest of her beer in one go. She hated how much it still hurt.

«I take that... Amy didn't break her cellphone». Danny encouraged her. If he could find enough information, he was going to track down this Amy and punch her right in the nose: how could anyone hurt their Alyssa like _that_?

«No», the woman breathed out. «She hadn't but for four months we didn't see Amy or hear from her. I was so worried, Danny. My brain couldn't think about her without imagining ICUs, doctors, and life support machines! 

«It felt like I had lost a fucking arm and no one knew where the fuck it went! It was horrendous. Then... Then I crossed paths with her older brother, David. God bless his soul! I was jogging in the park near our college when I saw him. I started running after him, shouting like a madwoman».

Danny knew he shouldn't, but he laughed at the scene shaped by his brain. Surprisingly, Alyssa laughed with him.

«Yeah, it hadn't been my best moment. Nonetheless, he halted his jog and waited for my explanation: the more I blabbed, the more he frowned. As his baby brother, he knew nothing of what I was talking about: Amy was okay when he went out jogging.

«I don't know what happened, probably he talked to Amy about my desperation or the fact that I tried to stalk him home, but the next day during lunch she marched up to our table. I remember Josh jumping up ready to hug her when she blocked him, she looked at us and simply told us to fuck off her life».

«Wait, just like _that_? After years of friendship just " _fuck off_ "?» Danny was outrage. Who the fuck this Amy thought she was? Alyssa was a fucking blessing of a person, living her life for others and loving without restrains. Yeah, she was full of innuendos and sarcasm and traumas, but she was like Steve: a fucking soft marshmallow that didn't deserve all the pain.

He decided: tomorrow he and Chin were going to found this Amy and make her life _a living fucking hell_.

«Just like that», Alyssa was still talking. «But well, you know me. I ran after her for half of the campus before she stopped and talked to me... Or better yet, she shitted me. She started talking about changing, not being the same person as before, that she could not be with us anymore, that it _was_ hurting her to leave us but it was for the better.

«She even dared to tell me that she would always love me and she knew that I was going to be okay because I was strong. My mind was so blown fucking away by all that shit that I was petrified on the spot and couldn't stop her from leaving. It took me half an hour to move away and go to my friends. I was so pissed that I almost punched my bathroom walls that night».

«So, the punch cruise started then?» Danny joked because he knew that if he didn't joke about it he was going to rip somebody's head off.

«Unfortunately, no. No, the punch cruise is a build-in setting».

The two gazed at each other for a few seconds before laughing out loud. They were tired, stressed, and worried out of their heads; the last two weeks without Steve were hard on both and finally, they were able to breathe again, to laugh without a thought, and just enjoy the moment and each other presence.

It was good for them to remember that they weren't in this alone.

«Oh my God», Danny tried to speak as he fought back his roaring laughter. «If you will not punch Steve, I definitely will do it... Even more, after hearing this story».

Alyssa breathe oxygen in and killed her laughter in her throat. It was good to open up to her friend, knowing her secrets were safe with Danny.

«And why do you want to punch him? Other than disappearing on you...»

Danny's breath got caught in his throat and fury spread out in every inch of his body at the memory of that letter. The blond found himself watching his naked feet and clinging to his bottle of beer.

«Steve confessed to me in the letter».

Alyssa's eyebrows skyrocket to her hair, a clear memory of her telling Steve to not fuck things up in the front of her brain. She vowed to herself to fucking punch that jerk into oblivion.

« _What did he do_?»

Danny's gaze snapped at her: Alyssa's tone wasn't surprised like he thought – or disgusted like he was afraid of – but irritated. He searched her dark eyes for a few seconds and...

«You _knew_ that Steve loves me!»

Alyssa frowned at his aghast tone. 

«What do you mean " _I knew_ "? _Obviously_ , I knew! Hell, I think three-quarters of the island population knows you love each other! And don't let me start on the betting pool ER nurses made on the two of you».

Danny's mouth and eyes were wide open, disbelief written all over his face.

«The ER nurses are betting on my _sex_ life?!»

«Sex, love, domestic life. If Steve is in the picture with you, they bet», she waved her hand dismissively. «But that was not the important thing right now. _What did you mean he confessed to you in the letter_?!»

Danny sighed, he knew that she wouldn't budge even if pressed with his bad cop vibe. He was going to let her go that night but he sure as fuck was going to talk to the nurses at ER.

«At the end of his letter, Steve wrote that he had something to say to me», he explained. «He wrote that he thought he could have waited for this Shelbourne shit to be over but he couldn't so he wrote: "I love you, and not in a platonic way" ».

Alyssa rubbed a hand over her face.

«I fucking told him _explicitly_ to not fuck this up», she sighed.

«He isn't good at listening. I don't even know how he was able to survive in the Navy».

They chuckled a little bit.

«Did... Did he seriously fuck this up? The "I love you" thing?» Alyssa asked Danny softly, really scared of the thought.

Danny relaxed in his chair and gulped the last sip of his beer.

«Nah, I love him too much... He has to do a lot of apologies when he comes back, nonetheless. Maybe sleeping on the couch for a couple of months».

They both laughed.

Alyssa was running.

She loathed it but she was running, the faster she ever did.

And all because of a _call_. A damn call from Chin at two in the morning.

«Steve is back», he had said to her, while her brain was trying to function properly. «He brought back Wo Fat with him, now he's in custody. Steve has just a few scratches but we are bringing him and Danny - who was kidnapped by CIA - to the ER».

There had been a moment of pure silence before she had remembered how to speak.

«Did you just said that Danny has been _kidnap_ by the _CIA_?»

«It's a long story, Lyss», he sighed, «meet us at the hospital, and we will tell you everything».

He hadn't to tell her twice: the moment the call ended she was up and a leg already inside her trousers. Didn't she use them for a couple of weeks in a row now? She didn't care, this was too much important to think about how broadly dirty her home–clothes were.

Let everyone saw the dirty spots on her tee too. Not that the ER nurses and Five-0's member hadn't seen her covered in worse things.

Alyssa was so panicked that she didn't remember how she got into her car: one moment she was in her bedroom and the next she was twisting her car into life, not even caring to change her flip flop into actual shoes.

The journey to the hospital was blurred. The streets, the lights, the people, and the cars fogged together into an unidentifiable mass of sounds and lights flashing by. One single thought running into her mind: Steve was home, Steve was back, Steve was okay, Steve was alive. And Danny too.

Her brain auto-piloted her in her parking lot and she was out once again, running for the door.

Had she locked her car? And her house?

Didn't care, didn't matter.

_Steve._

_Danny._

_Danny and Steve._

They were the only things that _mattered_.

She was through the doors and the familiar antiseptic scent was stronger than she ever remembered. Her heart was beating so loudly, she faintly heard Pam directing her to ER and trying to calm her down.

"They are okay, Doctor Fanti". The nurse said, but Alyssa didn't believe her.

She had to _see_.

She had to _touch_.

_She had to make sure herself_.

She dodged nurses and doctors and blocked out everyone who was trying to call her or to stop her. _They didn't matter_. 

Alyssa's breath was short and fast, her eyes were wide and her skin pale when she barged through the ER doors. Nurses around her were watching preoccupied, astonished, and some... Some had a little smile on their lips. Like they knew she would be in that state, at that moment.

She wanted to punch them. Hard. On the nose.

But she didn't, irritated rants were trimming the entire room and suddenly she could hear again.

The noise of moving gurneys, the shuffle of nurses and doctors, Kono's snickering, Danny... Oh, God, if Danny was shouting Steve's ass off.

And Alyssa almost started crying right there because if Danny was ranting like there was no tomorrow, everything was alright.

«Doc, they are three beds down, on the right».

Matt, a tall and blonde nurse, was patting her shoulder – When did he approach her? For how long she stayed there like a dead fish, letting Danny's voice soothing her worries? – and smiling at her, delighted. Fifty bucks were half-hidden in the pocket of his scrubs, probably won from the betting pool.

Alyssa nodded to him because she found her throat blocked by the tears, she knew that she was going to cry her eyes out but now was not the moment.

With a straight back and burning eyes, Alyssa took the last steps towards her two friends.

«I _swear_ Steven, try to give me another heart attack like this and I am fucking going to the governor himself and ask for a _divorce_!» Danny was shouting while a nurse was trying to do her job and attend to his injuries, but the blond was waving his arms around making her work a lot more difficult.

«I _am_ sorry». Steve, for his part, was a little mortified and Alyssa noted that his shoulders were bending forward messily; that alone was screaming how much Steve was tired. He was sitting in the bed next to Danny they were face to face, the nurse that was working on him poked his side now and then to keep him awake.

Kono and Chin were near the beds, out of the nurses' way, enjoying the show with a smirk full of happiness. No nurses tried to make them leave knowing that the two cousins would never listen: they needed to watch the two men as much as Alyssa.

«I honestly hope you are, you _asshole_ of a partner!» Danny barked again and slides his gaze away from Steve while the nurse was able to catch his right arm. His eyes fell on her, frozen just three steps away from Steve, and he gave her a half-smirk.

«Hey there, babe», he greeted her, a vicious light in his eyes and the silent permission: "Lash out against Steve with all you got". Alyssa for a second was impressed at Danny's certainty that he was not getting vented that night – he too was about to get a lot of rants from her, _CIA_ for fucking sake! – but her attention was stolen by Steve.

The brunette, seeing he didn't have all Danny's attention anymore, tensed up and slowly followed the other man's gaze. For a moment Alyssa's brown worried eyes were trapped in dark green irritated eyes but then Steve recognized her.

«Lyss», he breathed in a whisper, and the next moment Steve's arms were closed around her, his breath heavy against her neck and her feet were dangling in the air. The animal hugged her with so much enthusiasm that he raised her a few inches from the floor; Alyssa almost missed her arms closing around his friend's shoulders as her life depended on it.

«Oh God, if I missed you», he murmured into her ear. Alyssa squeezed him harder.

Was it minute? Was it hours? Alyssa didn't know but after what felt not enough time, Sam – the nurse that was attending Steve – broke the spell: «I'm sorry to interrupt the reunion, Doctor Fanti, but I need my patience back».

When the two friends separated from each other, everyone was looking at them with a fond smile. Danny gaze was overflowing with so much love for both of them that the woman found herself redder than ever.

«Sorry», Steve responded Sam with a smile so smug that reality crashed Alyssa like a bus on the road.

Steve _was_ in front of her.

The _same_ Steve that disappear without warning. Only _a letter_ left behind.

Steve _fucking_ McGarrett that almost fuck things up with Danny Williams.

_The_ Steve that she left her even knowing how much she was scared of being left behind.

The same guy she wanted to _punch_ for so, so much.

Nobody saw it coming.

Not the nurses, not Steve, and not even Alyssa.

Her right arm moved without her knowing and her punch hit Steve with such a force that she was blinded by the pain for a hundredth of a second. The brunette's face jerked sideways painfully and he had to take a couple of steps back to regain balance.

« _What the fu–_?» He asked because, seriously, it hurt almost like as much as the one Danny gave him the first day of their partnership. He touched his busted lip and saw a rivulet of blood on his hand; he was about to complain when he saw the big, fat tears that were falling from Alyssa's eyes.

«Y-Y-Y-you idiot!» She was shouting, her whole body trembling, her eyes on fire. Steve didn't have to turn around to see Danny smirk, he could feel it in the back of his neck. He had known the blond hadn't shouted _enough_ to him in the last hour – not as much as he had thought – and now he knew why: a shouting and crying Alyssa was worse to his guilt than anything.

«A-A-A letter?!» Her hands were everywhere, _worse than Danny's,_ his mind supplied, and that was a thing he had never believe possible. But thinking about it, Alyssa _was_ Italian. So yeah, it _should_ have crossed his mind once or twice. «Did you truly think that that was enough? That we would have gone on with our life l-l-like nothing was happening?!?! We were s-scared Steve! Worried sick that you could have died and we would never know! I was going mad! I-I-I almost took a tour all around the world to bring you back! You stupid ass, brain damage, cra—».

But Alyssa wasn't able to finish the sentence. 

A sob broke all her walls at once and she was crying like a newborn.

She was _euphoric_. She was _mad_. She was _relieved_. But essentially, she was overwhelmed with everything because she _didn't_ lose Steve. He was there and he was to stay.

That was something that Alyssa never felt in her entire life.

Danny moved gently the nurse away from his light injuries and reached his friend, engulfing her in a tight hug.

«It's okay Lyss», he was whispering while calling the rest of the Five-0 team with a hand gesture, «everything it's alright. Don't worry, we have you, babe, nothing is taking us from you».

Steve was fast to decipher Danny's hand waving but Chin and Kono caught up soon enough.

Alyssa felt like she was able to breathe again after a long time, the warmth that the group hug was giving her was beyond everything she ever felt.

Those four people and Grace – because if you want Danny in your life, you had to accept her daughter too; not that she didn't love that child – was all she needed to live.

They were _Ohana_.

They were _home_.


End file.
